This causes the victim to immediately transform into a horrid animal, aberration, magical beast, or vermin (the exact choice is made by the gongorinan according to its strange goals and unknowable desires), whereupon it begins living out its new life via pure instinct—this effect otherwise functions as baleful polymorph with the creature having failed its secondary Will save to retain its personality. A gongorinan can command the actions of a creature that has undergone this transformation as if the victim had been affected by dominate monster (this works even on creatures that are normally immune to such effects as a result of being mindless) as long as the gongorinan is within 120 feet of the creature. The effect can be reversed by break enchantment (DC 22—treat the gongorinan’s Hit Dice as the caster level), but cannot be dispelled.

The gongorinans are the spawn of the qlippoth lord Yamasoth, although one could be forgiven for thinking of them less as offspring and more as parasites. A gongorinan’s basic shape resembles that of an immense, stocky crab, save that it lacks crabs’aquatic adaptations—gongorinans are terrestrial creatures. A typical gongorinan has no fewer than a dozen stalked eyes, and is capable of extending these eyes from the upper edges of its body just above its mouth to a length of nearly 3 feet, giving it extraordinary vision in all directions. A gongorinan’s mouth is a complex tangle of sliding plates and toothy ridges that rasp and shriek against each other as it speaks and chews, but despite their frightening shapes, these mouthparts are ill-suited for making physical attacks; the gongorinan relies upon its arms for that. Each gongorinan has four arms, and each is a different, highly specialized appendage. The humanoid arm is used for fine manipulation or wielding weapons, while the mantis-like claw is used to shred flesh and create deep, bleeding wounds. The needle-covered tentacle is used to sting and inject a painful poison to stagger foes, while the pincer is used to snatch and hold victims close for oviposition.

A typical gongorinan stands about 6 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds. When at rest, a gongorinan retracts its limbs into its rock-encrusted body, allowing it to appear remarkably like nothing more than a large, misshapen boulder. Larger specimens known as elder gongorinans exist (and often have additional and even more dangerous arms), but these are quite rare save for in realms where Yamasoth’s influence is strong.

All gongorinans carry a brood of horrific egg masses, yet these eggs are not used for the propagation of their kind (a process governed by a more traditional and nightmarish method best left undescribed). Instead, these eggs carry within their stony shells a raw quintessence of the Abyss, infused with the ichor-seed of the gongorinans’ lord Yamasoth. Whereas most creatures are driven to breed and multiply, the gongorinans are instead driven to seek out humanoid hosts for their eggs. The implantation happens via the gongorinan’s mouth and a hideous ovipositor that’s neither tongue nor toothed, prolapsing throat, but something worse. Fortunately for most who might encounter a gongorinan, the oviposition process leaves the horrid qlippoth open to attack and cannot be performed quickly, yet to a lone adventurer caught and overwhelmed by a gongorinan, this is small comfort indeed.

Once an egg has been implanted, it takes many days to grow, and the gongorinan prefers to carry the unfortunate host off to restrain it in a hidden location for the duration.

Victims are often cocooned in webs while the egg gestates.

As it grows, the egg feeds on the victim’s mind, absorbing the victim’s intellect until it has reduced the host to a drooling wreck. At this point, the egg doesn’t hatch so much as it merge with the host, effecting a horrific and permanent transformation into a monstrous form. The gongorinan can influence this ultimate form as it lays its egg. It typically chooses powerful creatures already found in the region, for these “young” are loyal to their parent and serve it as guardians or playthings. Victims retain no portion of their previous personality, but those who have been rescued from this horrific fate via powerful magic do retain memories of their time as a monstrosity. Many never quite recover from these ordeals, and often develop a peculiar form of madness in which they regard their life as a monster as having been their true life, and their true form and life as the curse. The most despondent seek the promise of peace through suicide rather than endure the dreams of their life as a monster—dreams that carry within them a most horrible longing to return to the qlippoth’s arms.

Gongorinans are an industrious breed of qlippoth, and wherever they find themselves, they invariably form hive-like complexes in which to live. These gongorinan “cities” are labyrinthine affairs with plenty of chambers for their transformed children. In the Abyss, gongorinan hives can grow truly immense, with populations in the thousands, but the Material Plane is no stranger to their hive cities.

Elder Gongorinan

An elder gongorinan is a Large creature with at least 4 additional Hit Dice. For every 4 additional Hit Dice an elder gongorinan has, it gains an additional arm—these additional arms may duplicate an existing claw, sting, pincer, or hand.

An elder gongorinan with additional hands can make additional weapon attacks, but these are all treated as offhand attacks. The final CR of an elder gongorinan should be calculated after comparing its statistics to the expected values.

Some elder gongorinans have different arms; listed below are four examples of potential additional limbs.

Club: This whiplike arm ends in a bony growth that delivers a slam attack. A creature struck by this attack must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or be staggered for 1 round (DC = 10 + 1/2 the gongorinan’s Hit Dice + its Strength modifier).

Whip: This arm is a thin, segmented limb tipped with a long tendril. The arm deals slashing damage on a hit, has 5 feet more reach than normal, and attempts a free trip attack if it hits a target.

Worm: This arm ends in a maw capable of making a bite attack. On a hit, the bite inf licts confusion for 1d3 rounds unless the victim makes a successful Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the gongorinan’s Hit Dice + its Charisma modifier).